March 14 (SeeNews) - About 32% of Romanian employers anticipate an increase in staff numbers in the second quarter of the year, recruitment company ManpowerGroup Romania said on Tuesday.
With only 7% of employers foreseeing a decrease in staffing levels and 60% anticipating no change, Romania's seasonally adjusted net employment outlook (NEO) stands at +16%, relatively stable in comparison to last quarter, but improving by 5 percentage points over the year, ManpowerGroup said in its second-quarter Employment Outlook Survey.
For the first time in the 9 year history of the Romanian edition of the survey, hiring perspectives are positive across all eight regions and ten industry sectors in Romania, the company added.
"Bright and stable overall perspectives, matching the strongest levels reported since the economic crisis, mean a favorable and diverse labor market that candidates will benefit from, if they have the in-demand skills, both hard and soft,” Manpower's strategic marketing director for Europe Corina-Bianca Gonteanu said.
Job opportunities are likely to be brightest in wholesale and retail trade sector, where the NEO for April-June stands at +30%, the strongest reported since the third quarter of 2008. On the year, it improved by a considerable 13 percentage points, while on the quarter, is rose by 3 percentage points.
The strongest industry forecast is once again reported by employers in the manufacturing sector, where the outlook stands at +31%,weakening compared to the first quarter by 1 percentage point, but strengthening over the year by 2 percentage points.
The most significant year-on-year improvement, however, is reported by employers in the finance and business services sector, who forecast a NEO of +26%, 19 percentage points stronger on the year and 11 percentage points stronger over the quarter.
The forecast in the electricity, gas and water supply sector is also markedly stronger over the year by 11 percentage points and over the quarter by 16 percentage points. The +8% NEO is the first positive one reported in the sector in the past four years and the strongest in the history of the Romanian survey, Manpower said.
Outlooks are positive in all of the country’s regions, with the greatest quarter-over-quarter improvement reported in the center region, where the NEO is +29%.
The strongest year-over-year improvement, of 17 percentage points, is reported in the South region, where the outlook now stands at an optimistic +23%, a level unmatched since the last quarter of 2012.
Healthy levels of optimism are also reported in the North-West region, with a NEO of +24% and in the Bucharest and Ilfov region where the +22% outlook is the strongest since the first quarter of 2009.
Employers are optimistic regardless of their organization size, with employers in large organizations reporting a NEO of +28%, the strongest since the third quarter of 2008. Employers in micro organizations are more cautious, reporting an outlook of +7%, the survey showed.
The net employment outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from it the percentage of employers expecting to see a decrease, Manpower noted.
In Romania, the present survey was conducted by InfoCorp Ltd. between January 18 and 31 on a representative sample of 625 employers. The margin of error for all national, regional and global data is not greater than +/- 3.9%.